320 
THE COTTAGE GAEDENEE AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION.— August 5, 1850. 
prospective way, few will doubt; but still this question 
presses—At what period does their utility cease? It 
may be observed, that their action, as to the juices of 
the plant, cannot be worth consideration after October; 
but there is yet another view of the question, which is, 
that the crowns need protection from the inclemency of 
the winter. Such being the case, and the foliage being 
generally sufficient, it would, surely, be very silly to cut 
away their natural protection in the autumn, and to be 
driven to protect them with litter. In our opinion, the 
haulm of Strawberries should be cut clear away in 
spring, as late as may he—say in the middle of March. 
I care not how late; but it maybe remarked, that it 
must be removed before the young foliage springs, or 
there is danger of cutting the latter away in the 
operation. 
The cutting away of runners is an important part of 
culture. Some persons have doubted the propriety of 
this, judging that the runner strengthens the plant. This 
has been an inference of the theorist rather than the 
practical; but on whatever assumption it has been 
grounded, I feel assured it is a gross error. It has been 
said, that until the runner roots, its foliage is working 
for the parent plant; hut what nonsense is this. Out of 
what material, then, and from whence obtained, is the 
lusty bud of the runner before it has catered for itself 
by roots? With me there is not a doubt that the 
sooner the runners can be got rid of the better. They 
are, doubtless, intended for the renewal of the kind; 
and that accomplished, their room is preferable to their 
company. It is next only that they rob the soil, but, 
by their accumulation about the plant, crowd the foliage 
of the parent plant into a compass exceedingly un¬ 
favourable to free exercise of its functions. 
Another point is, Should we dig between Strawberries? 
They may have one spade wide dug in the centre 
between each two rows, when three feet at least apart, 
without injury, perhaps with benefit, when the plants 
have stood long in their situation. But, on the whole, 
I hold with deep digging at first, and an annual surface¬ 
dressing afterwards; be it ever so little, or weak in 
manurial principles, it must act as a sort of screen to 
the surface-roots. With this I would take a third crop, 
and then destroy the plantation immediately, trenching 
them dowirr K. Ebrington. 
CUTTINGS, SEEDS, AND SEEDLINGS. 
Fbom the first day of August to the tenth of Sep¬ 
tember is the best time in the whole year to propagate, 
by cuttings, nine-tenths of the bedding plants, and by 
sowing seeds of them. It is also the best time for two- 
thirds of all the kinds of seed plants which we use in 
the flower-garden. The open air is the best place in the 
world for sowing seeds, and for putting in cuttings of 
all the kinds which will do that way, and in the full 
face of the sun is better for them than in shady and 
sheltered places, provided you can give them, or rather, 
such of them as may seem to require it, under your 
management, a little shade at first, till they show, by 
their stand-up and pricked-ears-like leaves, they enjoy 
the light and air, and night dews. 
There is neither a single nor a double Geranium in the 
country, nor a Pelargonium, nor a Fancy Geranium, to¬ 
gether with all the bedders and borderers, but will come 
from cuttings full in the sun at this season, without the 
least shade of any kind whatever, if the plants have 
been properly managed up to the time of making the 
cuttings; and you may lay it down as a positive rule, 
that unless cuttings will stand up against a full August 
sun after a few days, something not just the thing has 
been the cause, rather than the true nature of the plant 
from which the cutting was taken. 
But stop a while, and do not jump at conclusions 
from the first and fair part of a story, dust hear me 
out patiently, and blame no one, nor your piace, nor 
fortune, nor good luck, if one half of your cuttings 
should be roasted alive iu the sun, and the other half 
done brown on both sides. Perhaps, after all, there is 
no one to blame. Instead of vexing yourself, and 
keeping everybody about you in hot water, just try 
and see if you can make out the cause why your cuttings 
do not stand the sun like those in the Experimental 
Garden, for, with me, every cutting of them must stand 
it out like the master. The Bridal King is, probably, 
the most delicate Geranium we have after Countess. 
Both of them root from cuttings, with me, on a west 
border, close in front of the parents, without the least 
particle of shade, and 1 did not put any shade over 
cuttings of any of the race in the open air for the last 
dozen years at least. After the end of May, I put such 
Geranium cuttings I want to get quickly through hand 
into pots of sandy loam, and place them in a cold 
Waltonian Case of my own construction, and the case 
stands about ten feet from the front glass, and eight 
feet from the roof glass of my only conservatoriutn. 
Some of the boxes which came with “contributions” 
make excellent cases for striking summer cuttings in. 
The lid is dispensed with, and a glazed-frame lid is put 
on instead; but the glass need not be puttied, if the 
squares are wanted for anything else: four tin-tacks, or 
“ carpet nails,” will keep a large square of glass in a 
frame for a few months; and as for locks and hinges, 
any handy man who could not make four pairs of 
“patent” hinges from his master’s old boots ought to 
go wdthout shoes himself until he learned how patent 
hinges of the kind are made by bis “ betters.” 
I said, last year, that I thought a case of this sort, 
having perpendicular light only from the lid, was better 
than if it was sloping to the sun like a Cucumber light, 
and now I am quite certain that such is the case. The 
length, the width, and the depth of a cold case may be 
just what it happens to be; but if you were going to 
make a dashing new one on purpose, I would advise it 
to be twelve inches deep, and twenty inches wide, and 
from three feet to forty inches long, and a poor man 
might hang it up, between two posts, just inside an 
“out-house” or shed, but not so far in as to keep the 
light from the glass. By hanging it up the children 
could not get at it. We must recollect, in all arrange¬ 
ments for “ common things,” that the rising generation 
has a wonderful taste for getting at the nature of things, 
and that the life of a thing is as nothing compared with 
the pleasure of knowing what they want to know 
about it. 
On the other hand, a man well to do in the world 
might make one of these cases to stand in a window 
recess and match the rest of the furniture, and if he 
looked at it morning and night he might grow ever so 
many things in it, and try experiments of his own; 
so that from the queen to the laundry-maid, I see no 
sort of use for hotbeds and all that sort of fuss, which 
many gardeners do for getting their cuttings to grow. 
All the secret is in taking advantage of the right time 
of the season, and that brings me round to the reason 
of the do and not do in the sun. / 
If the beds have been planted too thick, whose fault 
was that? or was it a fault or a misfortune? It is 
never a fault to have the beds planted thickly if you can 
afford to do so, but it is a great misfortune, just at this 
critical time, if the plants stand so thick in the bed 
that cuttings from them can stand so thinly hard by 
with some shade; but if it be so, so be it, and think of 
this rule next year. Either plant your Geranium beds 
so thin that the plants will only meet about the begin¬ 
ning of August, or else plant them to meet at once, and 
remove one-third, or a good many of the plants, from 
